With five birdies on his back nine and four on the front, Rory McIlroy carved up East Lake Golf Club with his putter throughout Saturday’s third round to post a thrilling 7-under 63.
A pair of par-3 bogeys at No. 2 and No. 11 limited McIlroy from tying — and perhaps breaking — the low score of the tournament. It was still a showcase for the three-time FedExCup winner who put together his best round of the week — and beat his previous best mark of the 2026 playoffs, a 6-under 64 during the opening round of last week’s BMW Championship.
McIlroy and Round 3 playing partner Si Woo Kim were the fourth pairing off the tee in Atlanta on Moving Day, and now had long wait watching as the rest of the field continued to keep up the low-scoring pace.
“It is a very bunched leaderboard. The field used to get spread out a little bit more on the old track,” McIlroy told CBS Sports after his round, comparing the course before its renovations to how it plays currently. “It seems like the last couple of years it’s been a little more bunched, and that’s a great thing because if you make a couple of birdies and jump up 10 or 15 spots.”
His birdie putt on the par-4 17th brought him into a five-way tie with Chris Gotterup, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Young and Ryan Gerard. It also gave him a stretch of three consecutive made birdie putts.
McIlroy went on to par his final hole after his tee shot disappeared off the fairway. He scrambled beautifully and gave himself at a fourth straight circle but would up just right of the cup on his birdie attempt.
It would have been just the second time he would have ended a round with four straight birdies. The first time it happened was at the Masters earlier this year.
“Sometimes you get your eye in — I was leaving myself with putts that had a little bit of break in them but they were downhill and just sort of had to get them going on the right line,” said McIlroy, who leads the field in shots gained putting for the first time since the opening round of the 2024 Players Championship. “Some days you leave yourself with putts that look better to you.”
The TOUR Championship brings this season’s top players to East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta to crown the 2026 FedExCup champion.
How it all shook out
McIlroy will enter Sunday five shots of Hovland’s lead, T-7 with Cameron Young at 10 under.
Gerard, Gotterup and Hovland all gained a stroke and took the co-lead at 11 under moments before McIlroy’s round wrapped up on the 18th hole.
From there, the leaderboard looked much like it has for a majority of the week in Atlanta — crowded.
Gerard, who sits solo second after 54 holes, finished a shot behind Hovland and will play with him again tomorrow.
“I hope I can make it a little bit easier on my putter,” said Hovland, who won the FedExCup in 2023. “If I can give myself a few more good looks, I feel like I am pretty deadly with the putter right now.”
Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler sits T-3 with Gotterup at 12 under. They share that spot with Ludvig Åberg and Adam Scott, tournament’s oldest player.
“I feel like if you went and did your homework and dug deep into the stats of the golf course, you might find something,” said Scott when asked if he had any perspective on the low scores in Atlanta. “There are a few anomalies this week. There’s been a lot of pars on holes, more than normal, I think. I don’t know why. Maybe the greens are softer than they have been because maybe they’re maturing. I’m not sure.”
As for McIlroy, he told CBS that his target score for the end of his third round was 10 under. Consider that goal mission accomplished.
“If the leaders only get to 13 [under] — and they might get lower than that, I felt like I could give myself a chance at 10,” he said.
What’s at stake this weekend in Atlanta? It’s a good time to ask considering the hundreds of thousands of dollars that could swing at each and every hole.